Four Uses for the Room of Requirement
by camweasley
Summary: Four times the Room of Requirement was of use to the Marauders. A collection of drabbles. Jily & Blackinnon in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

_AN: This is going to be a set of 4 drabbles that I hope to release daily this week leading up to Halloween. I know these are centered around all of the Marauders, but still, consider this my contribution to Jily October!_

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><p>I. 2nd Year<p>

The bed was shaking; that was new. Remus kept his eyes shut tight, refusing to let anything disturb him after the very long night he had suffered.

He was about to sink back into a comfortable sleep, shaking be damned, when he heard a voice abnormally deep for a thirteen-year-old whisper, "You reckon he's in a coma?"

"Nah," whispered a gravelly voice. "I think he's just really tired."

He knew those voices. They belonged to two of his three roommates: James Potter and Sirius Black.

_But how on earth did they find me here?_ Remus wondered.

Every since he had chanced upon this room—the magic room, as he thought of it—in the middle of his first year, he'd been using it to hide out during the mornings after particularly bad transformations.

The shaking of the bed intensified and Remus realized that one of the boys had climbed on and was now jumping on the bed.

"Oi, Lupin! Get up!" yelled Sirius.

"Don't do that, Sirius," James said.

To Remus' shock, Sirius actually stopped.

Remus opened his eyes just enough to glare at the two of them, who he saw were sitting on chairs they must have wished into existence.

James wore a look of extreme concern, but Sirius looked positively giddy.

"Nice set-up in here," Sirius said, looking around.

"It looks just like my room at home." Remus said groggily. "What are you doing here?"

"You've been asleep for twenty-four hours. It's Monday night. You missed all your classed and McGonagall's furious," Sirius said.

"What? Really?" Remus' first impulse was to get up, but he had only pulled himself halfway there before a pain in his side hit him and he fell back.

"No, not really," said James. "But you've—er—you're bleeding a bit on the bed."

Remus looked down and saw that there was indeed a dark spot on his light blue bedspread by his left side. He had gotten a particularly nasty gash that extended from his collarbone to his hip and through Madame Pomfrey had tried to heal it, she had apparently been unsuccessful.

He could feel his face heat up and his pulse quicken as he grasped to find an excuse.

"Oh, well, I, erm—" he tried again to sit up, but James gently pushed him back down.

"No, no, it's alright," James said, handing him a bottle of dittany and a towel.

Remus accepted the items and set to work applying the dittany on himself.

"Really, I've no idea how that happened," he said, "I mean, I go to visit my ill mother and I come back with this?" His voice shook and his attempt at laughter was pitiful.

"Are you even trying anymore, mate?" Sirius asked. "There's a giant bloody gash in your side, you've been passed out for hours, and your best excuse is that you _don't know how it happened_? We're not that thick."

"What do you mean?" Remus asked.

Sirius grinned and leaned in. "It means we know you're a were—"

"Sirius," James groaned, "I thought we were going to break it to him slowly."

"No point in that. He knows what he is."

"What are you talking about?" Remus asked, deciding that playing dumb was his only option.

"We don't care, honestly," James said.

"Quite right," Sirius added. "So you can stop looking like you're about to cry now."

Remus let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding, but his body remained tense. "I—"

"We figured it out right before Christmas, but we didn't know how long to keep it a secret from you," James said.

"Is it fun? Turning into a werewolf, I mean. It must be wicked. How'd you get that cut? Were you in a death match with something in the forbidden forest?" Sirius asked.

James glared at Sirius and then turned back to Remus. "We weren't going to tell you yet, but when you didn't come back after a day, we got worried."

"But how did you find me in the magic room?" Remus asked.

"Mate, we live in a castle for wizards. Every room is a magic room," Sirius deadpanned.

Remus stared at the other two, wishing desperately that he was a Legilimens.

"If this is some kind of a trick," he said, finally, "don't bother reporting me to Dumbledore, because he already knows and—"

"It's not a trick, we promise," James said.

"Promise?"

"We solemnly swear," said Sirius, raising his right hand. "Besides, do you really think we'd ever be the types to rat out a friend?" Sirius added.

"But I'm a werewolf."

Sirius shrugged. "You're still our friend."


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Here's chapter two! Also, I forgot to put this in the first chapter, but disclaimer: I do not own anything Harry Potter related

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><p>Sirius Black kicked the door open with his non-injured leg and stepped in, moving aside so that James and Remus could carry a half-passed-out Peter. This was made exceptionally difficult due to that fact that James had one hand held staunchly on his face pinching his nose which was bleeding profusely, and Peter was dead weight.<p>

Once the four boys had stumbled into the room that they had become accustomed to using over the years (and which always took the form of a larger version of the Gryffindor common room), Sirius shut the door behind them and collapsed onto a large armchair.

James and Remus laid Peter down onto the couch and then Remus sat on the chair opposite Sirius while James found a space on the floor.

"How the hell do we always end up considerably more injured than you, Remus?" Sirius asked, wincing as he moved his injured leg.

"I told you I have faster reflexes than you lot," Remus said. "And for the record, I am exhausted."

"Yes, but do you have a potentially broken leg?"

"No, but my heart rate is off the charts, which can't be good for me."

"I think I pulled a muscle in my back."

"I may have risked my position as a prefect."

"I broke a nail."

"Merlin, anything to win an argument, eh Sirius?" Peter said groggily.

"Petey! Glad to see you're alive," Sirius said.

"Of course I'm alive you tosser. What the hell happened?" Peter asked.

"Very long story," James said from his spot on the floor. He was holding a towel to his face so his words were slightly muffled. "How are you, Pete?"

"Better than you by the look of it. Can you at least tell me why I blacked out in the Astronomy Tower and woke up here to a splitting headache and those two having a who's-worse-off pissing match?"

James was about to respond when the door to the room burst open again and a curly headed blonde stormed into the room, followed by her equally livid red-haired friend.

Marlene McKinnon held her wand aloft as she marched directly towards Sirius. "What the bloody fuck have you done you sodding wankers?"

"Language, McKinnon," Sirius said cooly.

"I am not fucking around here, Black." She moved closer to him which made him lean as far back in his chair as he could.

"Really, Marlene, I've had enough wands pointed at me today already."

"McGonagall is searching the castle for all of you," Lily said. "She's in a right state. So whatever you did, you'd be better off confessing right now."

"But we didn't do anything!" James said, pulling the towel off of his face.

Lily turned to look at him and couldn't hold back a gasp when she saw just how much blood was covering him.

"Lily, would you mind demonstrating your remarkable healing talents on my nose?" James asked.

He sounded so pitiful that Lily nearly softened, but instead forced her face into an even deeper scowl. "Not until you tell me what happened out there."

"We were cornered," James said.

Lily continued to glare at him.

"It's true," Remus chimed in. "We really weren't doing anything."

"We swear," Peter said.

"That's what we were afraid of," Lily sighed. She sat down next to James on he floor and motioned for him to turn to her. "Merlin, that's bloody."

"You're telling me," James said, tilting his head back dramatically.

"So the attacks are getting worse?"

"They're as bad as they've always been. We're just not doing anything to start them anymore."

"Marlene was furious when she heard what happened."

"With us or with them?"

"With you, you bloody idiots!" Marlene whipped around and started towards James.

Sirius, who she had been yelling at, looked throughly stunned.

"You boys swore you wouldn't get in any fights."

"We had no choice!" Remus said.

"And _you_, Remus Lupin," she turned her attention again. "You were supposed to be smart enough to figure out the plan!"

"What plan?" asked Remus.

"The secret plan I was planning!"

"Well you didn't tell us about it," Sirius said.

"That's why it was secret!"

"Okay, maybe it's the head injury, but I'm not following at all," Peter said.

Marlene huffed once more and joined James and Lily on the rug. "If they attack, and you lot fight back, you all get in trouble if you get caught and there's no way to prove who started it. But if they attack and you _don't _fight back, _they and only they_ get in trouble. It's obvious."

"That's actually brilliant, Marlene," Sirius said.

"Of course it is."

"I wish I'd thought of that," said Remus.

"You might have if you raging hotheads actually stopped and used your brains for once!"

"Says the girl who apparently followed us to our secret hideout and then proceeded to threaten us with bodily harm," Sirius drawled.

"That is not at all what I did!" Marlene exclaimed.

"How _did _you find us?" James asked.

"We followed you," Lily replied, still working on his nose. "I wanted to bring biscuits, but Marlene said no."

"Quite right," said Marlene. "You don't deserve a reward for ruining my plan."

"Not fair, McKinnon. I was a biscuit," Sirius whined. "I _deserve_ a biscuit."

"Well, you'll have to go nick one from the kitchens just like everyone else."

Lily finally finished her work on James' nose and with a flourish of her wand siphoned all of the excess blood off of his face.

"So who was it?" she asked.

"Mulciber. Haven't a clue what curse he used," James said, pointing to his nose.

"No, I mean, who all attacked you?"

"Oh, well Mulciber, obviously. Avery. Crabbe."

"I'll be happy when that lot's gone," huffed Marlene.

"It wasn't just the seventh-years this time," Remus added.

"Who else?"

"My idiot brother," scowled Sirius.

"And Snape," James said quietly. His eyes were fixed on Lily, who, to his surprise, didn't so much as flinch.

"Of course he was," she said after a pause.

"What?" James asked.

"He's been going that way for years, hasn't he? It was only a matter of time before he joined in on the unprovoked attacks as well as all the nonsense you boys kept going when we were little. What really worries me is the fact that he and Regulus are willing to take that risk."

"What risk?" Peter asked.

"The seventh-years have nothing to lose. One more year and they're out anyway. But a sixth and a fifth-year?" James said.

"It's way more dangerous," Lily agreed.

"You're right." Remus stood up and began pacing the room. "If they're taking bigger risks, it means they're getting bolder, and if they're bolder, that means they're not afraid of getting in trouble, and if that's the case, it means that they's got some kind of security outside of Hogwarts."

There was a long silence as the group pondered Remus' words until finally Sirius sighed.

"Well boys, it looks like there's only one answer."

Marlene gasped. "They're already Death Eaters."


	3. Chapter 3

AN: better late than never, right? I don't own any of this.

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><p>III. 7th Year<p>

"You sure they won't find us in here?" Marlene giggled.

"They never have before," Sirius said as he shut the door.

"Well we've never been quite so obvious about what we were doing."

Like you care, McKinnon."

Marlene laughed as she walked further into the room.

It had changed since the last time the two of them had been there, but that was to be expected—they had been with Remus and Peter last time. Gone was the cozy common room, replaced with a spacious room complete with a giant rug, working shower and bath, and in the middle, a giant bed.

"Alone at last," Marlene sighed as she sat on the bed.

"And not a minute too soon." Sirius followed and stopped right in front of her. He leaned down and paused for a moment, his lips hovering right above hers, until she grabbed him by the back of the head and pulled him down.

Before long, Marlene had fallen backwards onto the bed and Sirius was on top of her, one elbow propping himself up and the other buried in her hair.

They stayed like that for a while, until Marlene pulled back. "You know they _are_ going to catch us eventually."

"Yeah, I know," Sirius said, running his hand through her hair. "But darling, I doubt that's going to be today. Remus is buried under a pile of homework, Peter's meeting with Professor Sprout, and James and Lily are who knows where."

Marlene smiled. "James and Lily. You say that like they're a unit."

"Well they might as well be."

"True. Just wish they'd go ahead and say it. I can hardly stand to be in the same room as them, what with them practically broadcasting the fact they're shagging. At least we understand that a secret is meant to be private."

"Speaking of that McKinnon…" Sirius trailed off, unsure of how to continue.

"Cat got your tongue?" Marlene teased. "Here, let me get it back for you." She leaned up and was about to kiss him again, when he moved his head to the side, then grabbed her hand to pull her into a sitting position."

"What is it?" she asked.

"Have you thought about maybe…not being so private?"

"You mean—"

"I know we said we liked it like this and I do too, but if you want to y'know, be more, I wouldn't be against that either."

"What, you mean like, be an official couple? Go steady or whatever?"

"If you want."

Marlene stared at Sirius for a very long time before bursting into laughter.

"Sorry," she said, "but I just don't think that's me. Or you."

Sirius let out a sigh. "Oh thank Merlin."

"What?"

"I was hoping that's what you'd say."

"Well then why on Earth did you offer it?" Marlene asked as she teasingly threw a pillow at him. "What would you have done if I said yes, you big dumb idiot?"

"I would have kissed you and said 'okay.'"

Marlene dropped the pillow she was holding and stared straight at him. "What?"

"Really McKinnon, this your 'what' count up to ten today."

"Are you being serious?"

"Naturally," he drawled.

Marlene scowled.

"Honest, Marlene. I would have been okay with it."

Marlene stared at him for a few more seconds, challenging herself not to say "what" again. Silence filled the room.

"Are you going to say anything? I'd even take a 'what' at this point.

He had barely finished his sentence when Marlene launched herself at him, knocking him over and landing half on top of him. Her mouth crashed onto his before he even had a chance to take a breath.

Marlene pulled back and moved her lips over to his ear.

"I hate labels. So I don't want to be you girlfriend. But I want you to know that as far as I'm concerned, this whatever-we-are is exclusive."

"Good enough for me."

Marlene pulled even further back to look him in the eyes and gave him a warm smile which he returned.

Sirius looked at Marlene and thought that he could look at her forever. Girlfriend or not, she was the most amazing girl he'd ever met and leagues above anyone he ever would meet.

Suddenly, the mischievous glint that had been in Marlene's eyes when she had first suggested sneaking away from everyone else returned. He blinked and her mouth was back at her ear.

"You know," she whispered, "I could have sworn there wasn't a shower in here last time."

"Right you are, love." In one sweeping motion, he managed to sit up and get one arm around her back and the other under her knees. As he stood, he picked her up and began to carry her to the other side of the room. "Seems I had more than one new thing on my mind when we came in here."


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: Better late than never, right? Right? Here's the final installation of this story! Hope y'all like it. Likes and Reviews are the coolest things since sliced bread. _

Chapter Four: Seventh Year Pt. 2

"Hurry, hurry, love," James whispered as he ran into the room. If it wasn't for the tight grip he hand on Lily's hand, the doors would have closed on her as she trodded behind him.

"You know there's no need for the secretiveness. The entire bloody castle knows about us, or did you forget about Halloween and all of the subsequent months of this school year?"

"Lils," James grinned, "I could never forget about Halloween. Or the subsequent months of the school year."

"Well I should hope not. Honestly, James, something's been up with you since last night and I'm really getting tired of the dodgy behavior. I mean, you weren't anywhere to be found this morning, you skivved off half your classes, and last night I had to do rounds with Davies. Davies, James! The most annoyi—"

"Look around, love," James cut Lily off mid-tirade. "You haven't even noticed where we are."

"Of course I know where we are, we're in the Room of Requireme—" This time Lily cut herself off. "What in the hell is this? Where's the—this doesn't look like the Common Room."

James smiled and walked closer to her. "That's because it isn't."

"And why not?"

"Because I didn't want it to look like that today."

Lily took in her surroundings. The Room, which usually looked like a replica of the Gryffindor Common Room, was totally transformed. It felt smaller, somehow, but more spacious at the same time. There was one single couch where there usually were several, and the large bookcase that usually held textbooks was replaced with a slim mahogany one that held an equal balance of muggle and wizard novels. Two very old, very comfortable looking chairs sat on either side of the couch, and a few potted plants hung above a small, blazing fireplace. The floors were covered in dark green shag carpet and a mahogany bookshelf stood in the corner.

"James…" She stood, dumbfounded, at the entry of the room. James took her by the hand again and led her deeper inside.

"I had to do a few practice runs, make sure every detail was exactly how I wanted it. As it turns out, it's very hard to imagine a place you've only seen once—and unfurnished, at that." He sat down in the middle of the couch and looked up at Lily, who was still too stunned to respond.

James watched her for a moment—admiring the way her hair glowed lightly from the fire, how her nose gently sloped up at the tip, how comically furrowed her brow became any time she was trying to puzzle out something perplexing—and he knew he was making the right decision.

"So," he said after a long silence, "what do you think of it?"

"I—I'm not quite sure what 'it' is," she said.

"It's our new flat," James replied.

Lily finally sat down. "Our…you're asking me to move in with you. After we finish here."

"Well, that too. You see," James shifted enough to be able to face Lily while still sitting, "my parents are rather traditionalist, it's a bit annoying but in this case I happen to agree with their judgement, and they simply will not stand for me moving in with a girl who's not my wife, so while I am asking you to move in with me, I'm actually asking you to marry me first."

If Lily had thought she was at a loss for words before, it was nothing compared to how speechless she had now become.

James ran a hand through his hair, silently cursing himself for never quite losing that nervous tick. "I know it's soon and a bit sudden, and I swear I'm not doing this just so you'll live with me, though now that I think of it I suppose that was a rubbish proposal, as proposals go. I—I've got a ring for you, also, if that makes any difference…"

"James, shut up."

"Sorry?"

"Stop talking."

"I—"

Lily closed the distance between the two of them and kissed him deeply. It took James a moment to process before he wrapped his arms around her. After several moments she pulled back.

"Yes, I will move in with you," she said. "And yes, I will marry you first. And for the record, I would have said yes, regardless of if there was a ring or not."

If James had thought he had been smiling before, it was nothing compared to how hard he was now grinning.

He kissed her again, and again she waited several moments before pulling back.

"Just one thing," she said.

"What?" he asked.

"The carpet is an absolute no."

James laughed. "How do hardwood floors sound?"

"Perfect."

"Perfect."


End file.
